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Speaker 1: But the City of Unley is planning increase rates where

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Speaker 1: developments don't meet a tree count. In essence, Michael Hewartson

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Speaker 1: is the mayor of the City of Unley and joins me. Now, Michael,

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Speaker 1: good morning.

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Speaker 2: Good wine, and good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Always good to have you on and you're always willing

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Speaker 1: to come on, which is wonderful. New developments without enough

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Speaker 1: trees to pay higher rates. So how's that going to work?

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Speaker 2: That's you. It couldn't work eight years ago. We couldn't

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Speaker 2: do it. But our staff have been actually magnificent. We

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Speaker 2: have we fire plane over the top and we measure

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Speaker 2: any heart you like the tree canopy, and we're saying

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Speaker 2: three meters is a tree and above. And the reason

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Speaker 2: we're saying that is a tree above is because that's

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Speaker 2: what the state governments say, is a tree and above.

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Speaker 2: And so we can now, at a very very low cost,

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Speaker 2: perhaps put on the rate notices everybody's tree canopy cover

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Speaker 2: and the only residents can look out for it in

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Speaker 2: their generally rate notices this year.

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Speaker 1: So how much should they have? How many trees per

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Speaker 1: per square block? How's it going to work?

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Speaker 2: Okay, First up, we talked about you you're talking about

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Speaker 2: the shults. The state target for Unney is actually thirty

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Speaker 2: one point four percent tree canopy covered, but our council

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Speaker 2: target is thirty percent, so we'll stick to thirty percent.

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Speaker 2: So they should have is thirty percent across the city.

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Speaker 2: Now the council have been planting I won't say madly,

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Speaker 2: very sensibly, Matthew, because we've planted so many trees on

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Speaker 2: our roads are cooler, and guess what, the bitchman's not

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Speaker 2: boiling away as fast, and so we're saving ratepayers money

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Speaker 2: by not having to replace the roads as often so

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Speaker 2: should have. We are planting six hundred trees this year

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Speaker 2: above our replacements, and we've got fifty different species and

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Speaker 2: we've only got one thousand, nine hundred and fourteen spots.

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Speaker 2: Visual spots left a stick a tree across the whole

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Speaker 2: city of council land and that did.

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Speaker 1: So three years, you'll be done three years.

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Speaker 2: We're not only done, we can't plan anymore. So the

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Speaker 2: fact that we're planning three hectares a tree canopy cover

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Speaker 2: year after year disappears in twenty trees then won't happen.

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Speaker 2: And so what's happening on the other side of the

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Speaker 2: equation is we're losing four hectares, that's two on the

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Speaker 2: ovals of trees each year after year, and we've only

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Speaker 2: got three hundred and seventy six hectares, And if you

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Speaker 2: do your mass, it's less than one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 2: on the ohs, and so we're losing it only over

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Speaker 2: a year more than we're planting. And if you do that,

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Speaker 2: when we've stopped planting on the council land, guess what

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Speaker 2: happens to our tree canopy? It dropped that on the

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Speaker 2: oble year after year, which means in a thirty four

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Speaker 2: degree day and only at the moment, at the minimum,

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Speaker 2: it will be forty two degrees on that day, maximum

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Speaker 2: forty six somewhere between. Depends on what you've got on

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Speaker 2: your own property, and so should we should we need

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Speaker 2: a private property to have an average of twenty two

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Speaker 2: percent panipy cover for us to deliver a thirty percent

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Speaker 2: target and be able to adapt and contain the heat

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Speaker 2: rises that are coming across the globe, and to reduce

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Speaker 2: the temperature in our need by between eight and twelve

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Speaker 2: degrees celsius.

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Speaker 1: All right, So are you targeting just developers or every

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Speaker 1: property owner? In anley to plant more trees. If they don't,

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Speaker 1: will they be penalized through rates.

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Speaker 2: Two separate questions there. Then talk about all the existing properties.

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Speaker 2: What we're doing for them is we're saying, we want

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Speaker 2: you to keep the trees. And by the way, if

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Speaker 2: you've got a regulator or slips and tree, we'll go

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Speaker 2: halves in the cost of you looking at after it

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Speaker 2: once every three years. We waked it every year, of course,

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Speaker 2: but every three years we've got hards and the cost. Second,

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Speaker 2: we've been giving away trees to our people to plant,

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Speaker 2: and do you know what, we are getting some planting,

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Speaker 2: but most of the plantings on public land so not much.

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Speaker 2: So we've been doing all those things, and people on

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Speaker 2: me have slowed down the removal of trees on their

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Speaker 2: private land, are allowing the existing trees to stay and grow.

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Speaker 2: That won't keep growing brever the new developments that increase

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Speaker 2: the built Formatthew, they are taking out sixty million dollars

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Speaker 2: worth of trees each year. That's for us to buy

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Speaker 2: the land of plant one and our budget's fifty five million.

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Speaker 2: So there it goes. Do we want our grandchildren, our

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Speaker 2: children of our need to cook and live in an

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Speaker 2: environment like suburbs of Western Sydney and Sydney itself that

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Speaker 2: have let their trees grow. And you've got a suburb

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Speaker 2: with forty four degrees and the neighboring suburb is thirty

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Speaker 2: two on the same day. This is because they've got

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Speaker 2: the tree canopy. That's the question. So no existing property

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Speaker 2: owner will ever with this proposal have to pay a

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Speaker 2: higher rate for lack of trees. Make a room. Okay,

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Speaker 2: now what who is affected? Well, we've got the lowest

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Speaker 2: amount of open space of any council, including one with

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Speaker 2: an airport, of any council and industrial areas of any

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Speaker 2: council across the whole of South Australia. And my meters

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Speaker 2: for squares open space per person that a person. The

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Speaker 2: United Nations says it's a minimum for cities and we

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Speaker 2: used to abate, but as we're going high rise, it's

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Speaker 2: what we're losing that and bait, guess what, every year

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Speaker 2: we're building out another couple of the hectares of built form.

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Speaker 2: So what we're saying is if you do a new

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Speaker 2: development and it's already fully built out, you do five

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Speaker 2: stories or whatever it is allowed in that property. You

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Speaker 2: don't have to have any new trees, etc. It's nothing retrospective.

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Speaker 2: If it's got built form on it, you can keep

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Speaker 2: it going. Second, if you increase the built form, as

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Speaker 2: only those properties increase. We want to have it so

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Speaker 2: that the current rules which say, oh you've got to

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Speaker 2: have famiable soil, and the rules say you have to

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Speaker 2: plant a tree, and we're assured that if everybody followed

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Speaker 2: the rules, they get way over fifteen percent tree canopy.

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Speaker 2: We're saying, okay, the rules aren't being applied by half

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Speaker 2: of the new developments. We know that from our twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two studies.

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Speaker 1: And we're not talking the high rises that have appeared

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Speaker 1: on Only Road the last few years. I imagine relative

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Speaker 1: high rises anyway, four or five floors. We're talking the

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Speaker 1: subdivided blocks in the back streets, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we're talking all existing property owners that want

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Speaker 2: a subdivide or no, no's got to increase the billfall.

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Speaker 2: So if you put a swimming pool in, for example

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Speaker 2: in Sydney, you can't put a poll in unless you've

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Speaker 2: got fifteen percent tree? Can it be outwards?

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Speaker 1: Okay?

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Speaker 2: What we're saying is something much gentler. We're saying, Okay,

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Speaker 2: you can put your poll in. If you lose your

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Speaker 2: tree can if it drops below fifteen percent, you're going

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Speaker 2: to contribute to the council, buying land to part the

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Speaker 2: tree somewhere else. On Now, what we're only charging. You know,

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Speaker 2: in my six years of me, our council is lowered

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Speaker 2: rates against CPI by well over six percent. So and

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Speaker 2: other councils of course around have been raising it faster

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Speaker 2: than CPI. So we're talking a very modest amount. My

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Speaker 2: rates are about two and a half thousand. If I

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Speaker 2: wanted to pull a poll in, I'd be up for

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Speaker 2: two fifty dollars a year if I had lack of trees.

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Speaker 2: And let me tell you that electricity had run the

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Speaker 2: pool and the cost of maintaining a pool is more

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Speaker 2: than those rates. And I'm contributing to the If you

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Speaker 2: like the children of Honey having a place that's liverable,

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Speaker 2: that's what's at stake. Whether the city of Honey will

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Speaker 2: be livable in fifty years time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the city. I'm only going to save the

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Speaker 1: planet though, when it comes to cooling global warming.

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Speaker 2: When in a way you act locally and think globally.

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Speaker 2: I've been invited to present at the Asia Pacific City

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Speaker 2: Summit with cities like Calcutta and the big cities of

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Speaker 2: China or their present to present this idea, and the

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Speaker 2: United Nations paid for me and invited me as their

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Speaker 2: guests to attend twenty eight because this problem is you've

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Speaker 2: just touched, is a worldwide problem and nobody's got the solution.

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Speaker 2: I was a fifth speaker our group. We had one

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Speaker 2: from the United States, one from Africa, big cities, one

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Speaker 2: from two different countries, and for each from two different

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Speaker 2: countries in South America. And their problem was in the

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Speaker 2: United States at one point six billion going to direct

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Speaker 2: from the federal government to the councils to plant trees.

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Speaker 2: And guess what they're finding. They're losing the trees on

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Speaker 2: private property, just like we are. And that's what's happening

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Speaker 2: globally there is laws don't achieve the outcomes. The laws

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Speaker 2: mean you've got expensive court cases and they're chasing up.

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Speaker 2: Whereas this is just an automatic incentive. If it was

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Speaker 2: an offset scheme, it would be eighty percent of rates

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Speaker 2: that we only we think because half of the new

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Speaker 2: developments are actually increasing the tree company magic and the

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Speaker 2: other half are strippn the lot and so we reckon

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Speaker 2: a small incentive of ten percent. Higher rates will change

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Speaker 2: the behavior.

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Speaker 1: Over time for people not planting trees, for.

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Speaker 2: People dripping the trees, not planning it if and I've

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Speaker 2: been one question which will come up from the listeners

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Speaker 2: is what if I do a new development and a

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Speaker 2: plant a tree and I've got seventeen percent color and

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Speaker 2: it's the wrong tree and it's causing damage and I

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Speaker 2: chop it down. I want to do something different. This

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Speaker 2: scheme will allow you to do that because we reckon

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Speaker 2: once you've got the fifteen percent cover near your house

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Speaker 2: and the benefits will give you around your house. People,

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Speaker 2: and we find this across the city and existing properties.

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Speaker 2: As I said, we are not losing our trees on

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Speaker 2: existing properties that don't get built and built form, so

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Speaker 2: we're holding our own. So we can expect new developments,

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Speaker 2: which gets some trees to also hold their own. So

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Speaker 2: we don't need to make rules for something which hasn't happened.

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Speaker 1: I'm speaking with Michael Shwanson, who is the mayor of

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Speaker 1: the city of Only And while I have you just

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Speaker 1: one last question regarding only Oval, the talk of a

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Speaker 1: fence as counsel decided yet of you have you come

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Speaker 1: to a position on whether offense should go back around only.

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Speaker 2: Over It's a council decision. It's tonight's meeting, and if

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Speaker 2: you want to discuss that with VET to morrow, very

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Speaker 2: happy to do so, but I'm not going to preempt

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Speaker 2: We've got extensive report, we've got big consultation that's gone

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Speaker 2: out there. It's all in the minutes, and very happy

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Speaker 2: to talk with you tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Can you talk about what consultation came up with us?

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Speaker 1: As people in the community. Do they want a fence back?

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Speaker 1: Is that public? Has that been released?

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Speaker 2: Yes, it has been released publicly In general terms, I

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Speaker 2: can let you know that if you encount every single survey,

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Speaker 2: the majority of people want offense. However, if you take

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Speaker 2: out the ones who don't live in on Me and

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Speaker 2: have a look at those, it's around about fifty five

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Speaker 2: to fifty seven against forty five. Of the local residents,

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Speaker 2: the people paying for the fence, they are against defense,

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Speaker 2: but it's not a big majority, Whereas the people who

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Speaker 2: don't live in on Me are around about eighty five

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Speaker 2: percent want offense. And the thing is the ovals are

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Speaker 2: regional othe and so council members really do have a

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Speaker 2: difficult decision to balance all that information. Okay, well so

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Speaker 2: and so I'm hoping they'll stay back afterwards and still

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Speaker 2: to be talking to each other at the end.

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Speaker 1: Well, I hope you go with your locals because driving

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Speaker 1: by it, it's a beautiful over without the fence. Does

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Speaker 1: it really need a fence?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's up to the many people think it does,

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Speaker 2: and many people think it doesn't. And is a beautiful

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Speaker 2: over and it's in wonderful condition. And thank you for

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Speaker 2: the compident. I'll take it.

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Speaker 1: Well, we might be speaking again tomorrow, Michael, depending on

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Speaker 1: your decision. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 1: Michael Stewartson, who is the mayor of the city of

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Speaker 1: Only